February 22, 2012
By Sam L. Marcelo
Fabrications is the first exhibition curated by Joselina "Yeyey" Cruz, who assumed the directorship of the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) late last year. It gathers nine Asian artists - seven Filipinos, one Thai, and one Singaporean - who work around "the conceptual nature of skin and cover."
Unlike group shows that are held together by the most tenuous of threads, Fabrications is tightly focused. A casual visitor who wanders into the first floor will understand, even without benefit of text, Ms. Cruz's intentions of assembling old works by Patricia Eustaquio, Bea Camacho, Imhathai Suwatthanasilp and Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, among others.
Crocheted sculptures made from lace (Ms. Eustaquio) and hair (Ms. Suwatthanasilp) converse with an 11-hour video of Ms. Camacho knitting herself into a cocoon and pink baby sweaters draped into vaginal forms by the Aquilizans. Here, then, is a dialog on contemporary art made by hooks and needles, yarn and thread.
When group shows do succeed, it's usually because participants create new work according to parameters set by the curator. Not so with Fabrications, wherein the only piece specifically made for the exhibition is Sandra Palomar's Bleed Suite, a delicate curtain tinged with blood from the artist's own body and from beasts.
Ms. Cruz recontextualizes objects already seen and presents them from a point of view that is clear, coherent and separate from the artists' original intentions. In a sense, the curator alerts …
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